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further resolved to take steps for bringing the matter to the notice
of the Government. A deputation having been appointed, it was
received in April, by the President of the Local Government Board,
who promised the matter his attention.
In June, I attended and gave evidence before a Select
Committee of the House of Commons appointed to enquire into the
working of the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings' Acts. The
The Report of the Committee is now published and will well repay
perusal.
The offensive odours arising from the ventilating shafts of the
sewers were a frequent cause of complaint during the year. It having
come to the knowledge of the Board that an arrangement existed
in Hanbury Street, Whitechapel, whereby the nuisance was to a
considerable extent abated, the Surveyor and I were directed by
your Board to make enquiries regarding it. We found that the
emanations from the sewer were conveyed through a pipe fixed to
the side of a house and carried above the roof; an upward draught
was maintained by a lighted gas jet in the course of the pipe, about
the level of an ordinary gas lamp, for which, by having glass inserted
in the pipe opposite the flame, it did duty. On our joint report,
your Board resolved to request the Metropolitan Board of Works to
try a similar experiment at the Triangle, Limehouse. It is time, and
more than time that something was done to remedy the nuisance, the
evil effects of which it is difficult to over-estimate.